Psychoanalysis A Review of Current Literature

Psychoanalysis: A Review of Current Literature
Authors(s): J. S. Van Teslaar

Source: The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Apr., 1912), pp. 309-327
Published by: University of Illinois Press
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PSYCHOANALYSIS: A REVIEW OF CURRENT
LITERATURE
By Dr. J. S. VAN TESLAAR
I. S. FREUD. Die Handlung der Traumdeutung in der Psychoanalyse.
Zentralblatt f. Psychoanalyse, II., 19II, 109-II3.
In this paper Freud discusses some points in the technique of dream
analysis bearing on the question: what practical uses may be made of
the art of dream analysis in the psychoanalytical treatment of neuroses?
It is ordinarily understood that, for clinical purposes, the analysis of
dreams must be thorough. This requires a great deal of time. Before
one dream has been examined completely the patient returns with other
dreams which appear of even greater diagnostic import. Soon the con-
sulting physician is overwhelmed by the amount of material on hand
requiring analysis, so that he can hardly do justice to it during the hour
set aside for consultation. Occasionally dreams are prolific; and the
patient's understanding of the incidents recorded therein is faltering
and slow. The physician's effort at penetrating the source of trouble
is thwarted on all sides by the patient's subconscious unwillingness to
co6perate. Meanwhile dream material keeps accumulating. Under
such circumstances one feels inclined to renounce all attempts at thor-
oughness of analysis or else is compelled to devote attention only to a
portion of the material.
Freud suggests that in all such cases it is preferable to limit one's
attention to what material may be dealt with properly during the hour
set aside for consultation rather than abandon thoroughness. Where
a new promising dream is reported it is always well to take it up even
if the analysis of an older dream is interrupted and must be postponed
indefinitely. In other words, where material accumulates so fast that
a choice becomes necessary it is of advantage to decide in favor of the
latest dream and to set aside, if necessary, observations already made
in connection with an older dream.
On the other hand, one should avoid giving to the patient the impres-
sion that a new dream is expected or is in any way essential for the
proper continuation of the task of analysis. Such a notion might easily
focus the patient's subconscious opposition upon the field of dream
memories and the fountain source of material would suddenly run dry;
there would be no dreams to report. On the contrary, the patient
should be made to feel that it is immaterial for the progress of the
work whether any new dreams are reported or not.
It is well to bear in mind that in severe neuroses most dreams are
built upon the whole pathogenic material, the details of which are
unknown to subject and physician alike, so that a complete analysis of
such a dream is out of the question. It is only as physician and patient
get closer together and win each other's confidence that the required
light from the intimate life history of the latter is thrown upon the
incidents revealed in the dream. Where the whole content of a com-
plicated neurosis of long standing is translated into the symbolical
310 VAN TESLAAR
language of a certain dream, an exhaustive interpretation of the dream
is not possible at one or two sittings or in the interval between it and
another, perhaps equally interesting dream. To arrive at a complete
understanding of such a dream would be to unravel the whole of the
series of pathogenic complexes which the experience of a lifetime has
gradually precipitated into the subconscious; and this is not possible
without a knowledge of the actual incidents of intimate order out of
which the complexes have thus been formed. As a rule, the examiner
must remove a great deal of subconscious opposition from his path
before this can be accomplished. The meaning of a dream is often
uncovered rather gradually, perhaps only in the course of months, by
keeping in mind its main features while the patient's analysis proceeds
along other lines.
When a partly analyzed dream is abandoned for a later report, little
is lost because, as a rule, new dreams only represent the same material
in a different and perhaps more penetrable form. A new dream may
throw a new and highly welcome side-light on the same material that
was studied in a preceding dream. Indeed, sometimes the best way to
unravel the meaning of a particularly baffling dream is to abandon it
purposely, for a time, follow the clues of newer dreams, and compare
the findings from time to time.
Freud insists that for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes it is never
necessary to instruct patients to write down their dreams during the
night or even at the earliest opportunity in the morning. A dream
which may be rescued from oblivion by this means is not likely to
prove of any particular value in the task of clearing up the patient's
condition. No special means for taking care of dreams are required.
The dreams the patient remembers and relates spontaneously furnish
the material needed for all practical purposes.
2. RUDOLF REITLER. Eine infantile Sexualtheorie und ihre Beziehung
zur Selbstmordsymbolik. Zentralblatt f. Psychoanalyse, II., 1911,
II14-121.
Reitler discusses the relations of suicidal impulse in the adolescent to
the infantile sex theory of Freud in connection with the report of a
clinical case which came under his observation,-a woman, 42 years of
age, presenting as the most persistent and troublesome symptoms for
which she sought psychoanalytic treatment, neurotic enuresis, exces-
sive onanism, and extreme sleeplessness.
The first trouble was so severe that on account of it she was unable
to travel, attend any society functions or even absent herself from
home for any length of time. Her onanistic excesses were not accom-
panied by the usual sex phantasies or indeed by any sexual imageries.
During actual sexual intercourse she remained frigid. To induce
orgasm in herself on such occasions she had to contemplate in her
phantasy a scene in which a man in the process of urinating played
the chief r6le. Strong relations being thus established between this
phantasy, or rather, the act it portrayed, and sexual satisfaction it was
perhaps logical that the woman should resort to masturbation as a
means of overcoming her urinary trouble.
Her sleeplessness was extreme and the author's analysis was directed
especially to its solution because it was the most troublesome of the
patient's symptoms. The patient believed herself extremely sensitive
to noise. Accordingly, she had instituted all kinds of measures for the
exclusion of sounds from the neighborhood of her sleeping room. The
residence was chosen on a side street seldom visited by wagons, on an
CURRENT LITERATURE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 3II
upper floor. The rooms on each side of her sleeping chamber remained
empty and securely locked up. The windows and doors to her room
remained closed summer and winter, and all crevices and cracks were
stopped up. Heavy portieres and curtains, cushions and carpets were
distributed everywhere. But all these extreme precautions to deaden
sound proved useless as she continued to pass sleepless nights. This
condition of extreme sleeplessness had lasted for many years preceding
treatment.
Under psychoanalytical inquiry it was soon found that not the actual
perception but the fear of noise was what kept her sleepless through
the nights. Under the extreme precautions she had taken she could
have not been disturbed by the actual occurrence of sound. What
really kept her awake was the thought that noises may occur and pre-
vent her from going to sleep. Simple as this fact is, the patient, at
first could not be induced to see the difference between actual noise
and the unpleasant anticipation of it. Her manifest unwillingness to
recognize this difference pointed thus clearly to a subconscious opposi-
tion against the discovery of the guilty psychic complex which lay un-
doubtedly hidden in this direction. This was only to be expected and
served only as a sign that the inquiry was approaching the source of
trouble. Patients always show opposition at such critical times. Their
memory fails them or their understanding seems to be serving them
poorly. The woman had been under psychoanalytical treatment long
enough to understand the guiding principles of this method and was
well aware at the time that if she acknowledged that not the noise but
the fear of it kept her awake the next step would be to trace this fear
back to some unfulfilled wish of a very intimate order. Naturally
enough patients strive against being confronted with those innermost
features of their psychic mechanism which are incompatible with the
ethical and social standards forming the framework of ordinary con-
scious activity.
At this point the author suspected that there may have been a time,
perhaps during her childhood, when the patient chose to lay awake
nights in order to listen to some mysterious or pleasurable sounds of
some kind. Later on, under the restraint of a consciousness dominated
by the usual ethico-social ideals of conduct with which children become
imbued she may have wanted to turn away from this shameful thing
but the suppression of the effect was only partly successful even if the
actual occurrence was completely rooted out from conscious memory.
The accompanying affect, incompletely repressed, manifests itself now
under a morbid form as fear. At first the patient denied every intima-
tion along this line. Asked pointedly whether she had ever witnessed
the sexual act among her parents as a child she did not fly at once into
a defensive attitude, as subjects often do, forgetful of the maxim, qui
s'excuse, s'accuse. Instead she couched her denials in temperate, well
ordered language without undue protestation and without recourse to
illogical argument to prove the impossibility of such an occurrence.
In short, she did not protest too much. The manner of her denial
was such that there was no reason to suspect the usual opposition which
neurotics fling subconsciously across the examiner's road whenever his
inquiries approach sensitive ground. It was clear that the patient had
really not witnessed the sexual act among her parents as usually
understood. What she did see, while a child, she could not tell, at least
she remembered nothing of it at the time, but this came to the surface
quite incidentally later.
Author and patient were conversing about suicide one day. She con-
312 VAN TESLAAR
fessed having at one time contemplated this act; she intended to use for
the purpose her father's army revolver because, she stated, it sym-
bolized more closely than any other means of self-destruction she
might have chosen her return into her father's arms; also the man on
whose account she was entertaining thoughts of suicide was an army
officer, like her father, and this may have had something to do with
her choice. That the patient was aware of the symbolic meaning of
the pistol, in Freudian terms, at the time of this conversation, became
evident by a remark she had made in the course of her story. But her
suicidal phantasies centered much more persistently around illuminat-
ing gas. She liked to picture herself committing suicide by throwing
the gas jet wide open. Much to the author's surprise, in relating this
phantasy, the patient laid particular stress upon the noise of the escap-
ing gas, although at the time she must have been equally aware of the
symbolic meaning, of the gas pipe running horizontally from the wall
over her dressing table. Questioned about this the patient retorted,
not without a significant show of feeling, that it was the escaping gas
and not the pipe which caused death. This was not satisfactory to
Reitler. He remarked that the ball and not the revolver causes death,
yet in relating that story she had laid all stress on the revolver.
He undertook to explain the symbolism of escaping gas in Freudian
terms and before he was through there came to the patient's mind a
childhood recollection which had escaped her memory so completely
that she had not thought of the incident in question even once in the
thirty-five years since it happened.
She was about six or seven years of age at the time. One morning
she wandered at a very early hour into her parents' bedroom and found
them sleeping together. The lower part of her father's body was ex-
posed naked. Much frightened she returned to her room, closing the
door behind her so quietly that her parents knew nothing of the inci-
dent. She tried to fall asleep but could not. Instead she was thinking
persistently of what she had just seen and also of the noise of escaping
intestinal gas she sometimes heard from that room. As she lay awake
reflecting on these matter she connected the two and gradually built
up a whole theory about the manner in which "parents carry out that
about which it is not the children's business to know anything." She
thought of an apposition of the gluteal regions between parents in bed
and an exchange of gases between them as constituting the sexual act.
This infantile sex theory had been completely forgotten. In later
years it only appeared "affektdeterminierend" in the patient's suicidal
phantasies in which the outrushing gas represented symbolically, ac-
cording to the writer, the noise of the intestinal gases heard by the child
in her parent's bedroom.
Further analysis disclosed a number of other phantasies and sym-
bolic relations around the theme "gas, wind, storm=fecundation." For
instance, as a young girl she wished for herself not a " deep and true"
but a "stormy" love. Once, on a stormy night she experienced an
unaccountable impulse to go into the street and wander about with her
clothes loosened up about her so as to expose her body to the fury of
the storm. She would thus catch cold and die of pneumonia,-an
erotic phantasy masked under a suicidal impulse. In fact stormy
weather always brought her enjoyment, "a pleasurable feeling akin to
sexual delight."
Perhaps the most remarkable feature about the case is the fact that
as soon as this infantile sex phantasy had been thus brought to sur-
face and its r6le in the patient's condition explained to her, she was
CURRENT LITERATURE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 313
completely relieved of her sleeplessness. She removed the unusual pre-
cautions against noise around her room and for the first time in many
years she was able to sleep. She was even able, for the first time in
twenty years or more, to renounce the use of antiphones, and ear
stoppers and heavy bandages around her head. The other symptoms
also showed a noticeable improvement. The recovery of sleep per-
sisted through the interval between the solution of the trouble and the
publication of the report, a period of about ten months. The belief
seemed justified that the recovery was permanent.
The author quotes numerous references from comparative religion
and folklore to show that, after all, the patient's peculiar infantile sex
phantasy in which air, gas, or wind plays such a predominant r61le is
not very unusual. In her childish phantasy the patient had built up a
theory of fecundation the parallel of which is not uncommon in folk-
lore and mythology. Even Christianity is not free of such phantasies.
The bible mentions the appearance of the holy spirit, symbol of fer-
tility, not only under the old phallic form of tongues of flame but also
accompanied by storm or wind. The relation between the first breath
and life is too obvious not to have been seized upon by the primitive
mind; it furnishes a rich theme of phantasy and conjecture in folk-
lore, both ancient and modern. According to a Brahmin belief, Pra-
japati animated man with his lower breath while his upper breath gave
life to the deities. In Eduard Fuchs' Illustrierte Sittengeschichte (suppl.
vol., p. 289) may be seen a reproduction of the portals of St. Mary's
Church at Wiirzburg and over it will be noted a bas-relief representing
" Mary's Conception." It shows God himself in the r61e of father hold-
ing between his lips "einen langen Schlauch" the other end of which
reaches down to earth and enters the body of Mary. In the Finnish
epic Kalevala, the virgin Ilmator is represented as becoming a mother
through the agency of the wind. Such notions are common in the
folklore of many people.
3. B. DATTNER. Eine psychoanalytische Studie an einem Stotterer.
Zentralblatt f. Psychoanalyse, II., i911, 18-26.
Emboldened by Stekel's suggestion that anxiety neuroses frequently
manifest themselves under bizarre and unusual forms, the author of
this communication applied the psychoanalytical method of treatment
to a case of stammering which had resisted all other methods of treat-
ment. The success was so rapid as to appear truly marvelous. Although
the case had been of many years' standing, only six days of analytical
treatment were sufficient to accomplish a cure after years of special
treatment by other methods had failed completely.
The patient was thirty-six years of age at the time of the analysis.
He thought his condition was due to his being frightened by a large
dog when he was about eight years of age. His mother attributed his
condition to diphtheria from which he had suffered one year later. The
process of analysis was begun without any unnecessary loss of time
and proceeded rapidly as the author enjoyed the patient's complete
confidence from the very beginning. Without this the result would
probably not have been quite so prompt. As soon as the plan of treat-
ment was outlined the patient plunged into the most confidential fea-
tures of his personal life history, beginning with his earliest recollec-
tions. At six years of age he had already been addicted to masturba-
tion; and he had attempted coitus-like relations with his sister, a little
girl of four. Soon afterwards his sister died. It produced a painful
impression upon him, and ever after the recollection of his deed
3I4 VAN TESLAAR
brought him many remorseful pangs. He was very pious; yet he did
not dare confess to anyone his trouble; and this aggravated his mental
condition. Though no one knew his secret, he feared that some day
he would be found out and this would mean everlasting scorn and ruin.
The memory of his nefarious act stretched like a red string through all
the mazes of his life experience.
Here are a few examples of his speech trouble. In reading gender
terms, der and die became du, especially when he failed to concentrate
his mind upon the task in hand; ihm became ihn; and ihr, nearly al-
ways, ich. The patient recalled having had the same difficulty during
his school period. His trouble evidently began with the pronunciation
of particles of speech denoting gender. He confessed that particles
like der and die reminded him of his early misdeed; and whenever
they occurred in the course of his speech he faltered and stammered.
Gradually the difficulty spread to many other words denoting gender
until there was quite a constellation of them. Thus gender-bearing
nouns became also the bearers of the secret of his soul and witnesses
of his guilt. Every word denoting sex caused him to falter and stam-
mer in his speech. All this was explained to him in Freudian terms
and his conscience was assuaged and freed of the burden of self-
reproach. The result was that the speech difficulty cleared promptly.
The word anstossend also presented difficulty. The patient invariably
read this word angestossen. Questioned about this, he declared "er
hatte die Empfindung im Leben iiberall angestossen zu sein." With
this explanation and the author's reassuring counsel this trouble also
disappeared.
Under the circumstances it was only natural to surmise that a
similar pathogenic memory-complex was at work behind every other
word, whose reading or pronunciation presented marked difficulty.
Consequently each important troublesome word was taken up in turn;
its free associations, and the memory pictures it evoked were analyzed
as minutely as possible. Here is an example: Osterfeiertage. The
patient was able to pronounce this word only after several unsuccess-
ful attempts. Asked about the memories which the word brought to
his mind, the patient recalled, for the first time since he had grown up,
a painful scene which he had witnessed as a four-year-old boy, on
Easter day. He saw his father brutally attacking his mother for hav-
ing dared to disobey his orders not to have anything to do with her
sister who had given birth to an illegitimate child. He saw himself
kneeling at the feet of his dearly beloved mother while his father was
heaping abuse upon her; and he experienced once more, almost in its
original intensity, the hatred of his father which that painful scene
had originally evoked. He could still recall the unspeakable epithets
and insults although more than thirty years had elapsed, and he had
never thought of the sad occurrence in the meantime. The dramatic
intensity of the situation was heightened by the fact that he was very
much attached to his aunt, an affection which was not without its sex
elements, according to the patient's own spontaneous avowal. Also,
throughout his life, the patient was extremely devoted to his mother,
while towards his father he felt an equally strong repulsion.
A number of other confessions follow, pertaining mostly to the
patient's numerous love affairs and his intimate sex experiences. Some
of his amorous adventures were carried out under circumstances
which weighed heavily on his conscience later. He worried over them,
felt he had done wrong and, being of a religious disposition, he feared,
that punishment in some form would reach him sooner or later.
The lengthy confessions over, the author explained point by point the
relation of the various memories recalled to the patient's symptoms and
appeased his conscience with proper reassurances. After one week of
this treatment, as has already been stated, the speech trouble was over-
come completely.
4. N. VASCHIDE. Le sommeil et les raves. Paris, I9II, 305 pages.
The author of this work had published at various intervals since
1898 a number of papers on sleep and on dreams. After his death, in
1909, his papers were gathered together, and :they form the present
volume in the Bibliotheque de la philosophie contemporaine.
These papers fall into three groups. The first group deals with the
subject of sleep proper, and outlines the various hypotheses which have
been proposed, notably the circulatory, neuro-dynamic, biochemical,
toxic and biological theories. The psycho-physiology of sleep and the
r6!e of attention are also considered briefly. The second group, also
historical and expository, deals with dreams and especially with the
experimental sides of the problem. Here are recorded the well-known
theories of Maury, Marquis d'Hervey de St. Denis, Mourly Vold and
Freud, as well as the particular technique of inquiry upon which these
theories are based. The author's own observations and technique are
given in the third part. Interesting as they are, most of these observa-
tions are not empirically established. When we are told, for instance,
that a determination to awaken at a certain hour disturbs sleep and
usually leads to one's awaking earlier than the set time we must regard
it as an empirical statement, although the author does add that during
a sleep from which we wish to awaken at a certain time there is an
acceleration of the cardiac beat. We are also told that dreams are
lighter and more logical during day time than at night; that the struc-
ture of a dream is related to the depth of the sleep; but these are well-
known facts.
The commonly accepted belief that 'thoughts fly faster during sleep'
is doubted by Vaschide. He claims to have found that a brief period
of amnesia occurs immediately upon awakening; it occupies an interval
of one-tenth of a second to two or three minutes. This discovery
should prove of highest importance in the study of dreams if it can be
substantiated. The recollection of a dream within a dream is ascribed
to autosuggestion. The volume contains no other suggestions strik-
ingly novel or original. Even the notion of a brief amnesia between
the sleeping and the waking state is not new. Vaschide's merit in its
connection consists in furnishing, apparently, scientific evidence or
sanction for this old belief.
The 'conspiracy of silence' which, according to the plaint of his
pupils, surrounded Freud's Traumdeutung is certainly at an end.
Freud's work is given a prominent place in this volume. Vaschide ranks
it, with the work of Maury, as the most systematic and thorough in-
quiry into the realm of dreams. Vaschide makes a great deal more of
Maury's theories than the facts warrant. This may be easily explained
as an instance of French bias, perhaps brought about logically enough
through Vaschide's greater familiarity with the literature of his
adopted country. Maury did not formulate anything like a complete
fundamental theory of dreams, such as Freud's. His chief merit lies
in a number of keen conservations, but they are far from forming a
complete system. We learn from Maury, for instance, that olfactory
dream hallucinations are especially common in the prodromal stages
of psychoses. Nothing more is said about this matter. A similar
316 VAN TESLAAR
observation by Freud, namely, that the olfactory sense is abnormally
developed in neurotics (in his Bemnerkungen zu einem Fall von Zwangs-
neurose) is explained by reference to a well-ordered system of psy-
chological notions.
Diametrically opposed to Maury's position that dreams are the pro-
duct of psychic automatism stands Marquis de St. Denis, another
French writer of whom Vaschide is disposed to think very highly.
The somewhat eccentric work by St. Denis entitled, " Dreams and How
to Control Them," embodies some very ingenious observations, but un-
fortunately their value is considerably lessened by the circumstances
under which the observations were made. The author was interested
in finding a method of controlling dreams. The objectivity and accur-
acy of his observations must have suffered in consequence. Vaschide
is convinced that we cannot so much as control the hour of awaking
without interfering with the course of dreams; and in a work like that
of St. Denis, undertaken with the avowed purpose of finding a method
of controlling dreams, it would be difficult to overestimate the influence
of suggestion.
But " Dreams and How to Control Them " is not without its merits.
It is one of the first works conceived in a scientific spirit which starts
with the premise that there is method and meaning to every dream, no
matter how complicated, and that we ought to bend our efforts to
understand dreams as a peculiarly suitable means of getting at the
workings of the human soul. In fact, its author went so far as to
maintain that the true character of persons, especially of women, may
be perceived more correctly through the understanding of dreams than
through a knowledge of their conscious activity. While St. Denis has
framed no such fundamental conceptions as Freud'sTraumdeutung the
merit of having anticipated some of its important conclusions belongs
to him.
No review of a work on dreams would be complete nowadays without
a reference to the author's attitude towards Freud's theories. Vas-
chide's account of them is sympathetic so far as it goes. Strange to
say, in this account the sexual factor is hardly given the import it
bears in the original theory. A dream of Ernest Renan, dating from
the early sixties, is rescued from the forgotten pages of literature and
is psychoanalyzed, but incompletely. The author regrets that Freud's
Traumdeutung is not better known in France.
5. JOHN MOURLY VOLD. Ueber den Traum: Experimental-psycholo-
gische Untersuchungen. Herausgegeben von 0. Klemm. Leipzig,
Barth, 1910, 435 pages.
We are witnessing an almost unprecedented revival of interest in the
subject of dreams, judging by the number of books that have appeared
recently on the subject. Certainly not since the early sixties have there
been published so many works on the subject at any one time. True,
most of these works consist chiefly of historical accounts of the prob-
lem; they furnish excellent general surveys and add little that is strik-
ingly new to our knowledge; but there are a few notable exceptions,
especially among the books dealing with the experimental side of the
problem. Among the latter, Mourly Vold's work deserves to be singled
out as perhaps the most thorough and painstaking. It is based on per-
sonal observations carried out by the author over a long period of
years, also on the observations of a number of students under his
direction; and the work is a fair example of scientific perseverance.
The results obtained by the author may be adjudged rather scant when
contrasted with the amount of labor they have cost but this only adds
to the merits of the author who has chosen such a thankless field for
his scientific labors.
A review such as this work deserves would be out of place here;
only a few points of special interest from the Freudian standpoint of
dream analysis will be noted.
Vold found that in dreams facial hallucinations may be due to
sensory stimulation of other bodily regions, just as in the waking state.
Any cutaneous-motor stimulation, no matter on what portion of the
body it may be located, may give rise to facial hallucinations. These
hallucinations are more frequently caused by such peripheral stimula-
tions than by excitations of facial regions directly. In other words,
stimuli involving directly the retina or ocular muscles or other portions
of the ocular apparatus play only a secondary role in the psycho-
genesis of facial hallucinations. Between the facial hallucinations in
either dreams or the waking state and the facial and other hallucina-
tions of psychopathic states there exists, according to this Norwegian
writer, a very close psychogenetic relationship. Freudians who have
been criticized severely because of their tendency to apply the psychic
mechanism revealed in morbid states to the analysis of normal psychic
activity will welcome this view as implying a vindication of their
position.
Another of Vold's conclusions which will be greeted with a great
deal of satisfaction by the pupils of Freud is that concerning the origin
of dream hallucinations. He finds that these are frequently built
around childhood memories. For the explanation of hallucinations
during which objects are seen moving passively through space Vold
assumes a special psycho-motor state, a generalized feeling akin to
sexual excitation. This is particularly true of the state accompanying
the vision of things swaying in space and of dreams in which one finds
oneself floating along smoothly or flying through air. Sexual excita-
tion manifests itself in dreams and hallucinations through a peculiar
state of muscular tone; it gives a feeling of strength, of muscular
vigor and of general well-being not easily described. This is the rea-
son why such dreams are most common during puberty. They are
often encountered also during convalescence from disease with the
return of the patient's strength and vitality. The paintings represent-
ing saints in a state of ecstacy, and many of the so-called spiritistic
phenomena belong to this category. Witches and charmers who are
represented as riding through space, etc., are hysterical subjects with
strong sexual leanings.
6. L. LOEWENFELD. Ueber die Sexualitait im Kindesalter. Sexual-
Probleme, VII., 1911. 444-454; 516-534.
Loewenfeld was among the first writers to oppose Freud, in the
middle of the nineties. Unlike others, he did not attack psychoana-
lytical views in a prejudiced spirit but on the basis of counter-proofs
and with scientific arguments. This makes him an honorable opponent
and renders his views particularly interesting.
The present contribution is a brief discussion of Freud's theory of
infantile sexuality as developed in the Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexual-
theorie. He wonders how Freud conceived that das Ludeln is always
an occasion for sexual excitation in children or that onanism is a uni-
versal trait of infancy. According to his observations upon children
this is not the case; nor are pollution-like excitations as common
among children as is maintained by Freud's school.
318 VAN TESLAAR
Concerning the inclination of children to uncover themselves, Loewen-
feld states that it is by no means a universal trait, nor need this ten-
dency of children be interpreted in the same sense as the more sig-
nificant forms of exhibitionism. Why would it not be more simple
and equally satisfactory to look upon the tendency of children to un-
cover themselves as due simply to the pleasurable feeling which free-
dom from cumbersome coverings naturally gives? In the same way
their 'exposure' instinct may be explained without recourse to any
fanciful theory as due to the children's natural learning instinct and
great curiosity. These traits are universal enough so that it would
not be far-fetched to ascribe to them the tendencies which are charac-
teristic of childhood instead of having recourse to very elaborate
hypotheses. Children are naturally curious about everything that
comes within the reach of their senses. What is more natural than
that they should extend the same curiosity to certain regions of their
body? Even a certain degree of 'exhibitionism' would be admissible
on this score, and would not necessarily imply erotic tendencies.
As to fear, it is by no means certain that it stands in such close
relationship to sexuality as Freud would have us believe. Infantile
fear may be only the natural consequence of ignorance, the realiza-
tion of complete helplessness in the presence of the unusual. Freud
assumes that the erogenous character of the excretory zones of the
body is realized early during infantile life; but Loewenfeld denies
that this is frequently the case. According to the latter's experience
with children, the erogenous character of these zones may not become
manifest earlier than the school age, and even then, the sexual awak-
ening may proceed without any of the portentous consequences de-
scribed by Freud.
The infantile "Analerotik" which, according to Sadger, is the most
common form of sexuality in childhood is looked upon with extreme
scepticism by the writer.
7. P. NACKE. Ueber tardive Homosexualitait. Sexual-Probleme, VII.,
1911. 612-634.
Under 'belated' homosexuality the author conceives the homosexual
tendencies which appear late in life in persons who have first experi-
enced hetero-sexuality, or bi-sexuality with the hetero-sexual compo-
nent predominant.
The author thinks that genuine cases of this kind are rare. The sub-
jects belong to the group of bisexuals. Homosexuality cannot be
aroused through improper associations, lewd suggestions of corrupt
companions, like other vices; homosexuals are born, though the trait
may appear only late. There is no such thing as acquired homosex-
uality. Most cases which manifest themselves late in life are instances
of ' pseudo-homosexuality.' True homosexuality breaks out early. The
best guide to a differentiation between the two forms is furnished by
the subject's dream life.
These are in brief the author's views on the subject. The case which
furnishes this opportunity of discussing them is one of infantile repres-
sion, in Freudian terminology. Of course the subject was bi-sexual;
the analytical school of psychology recognizes no alternative. It looks
upon mono-sexuality as a myth. With the author's view that homo-
sexuality does not necessarily imply degeneration, Freudians will agree;
but they will probably refuse to accept the new term which Niicke intro-
duces. AWhat is there really to distinguish his 'belated' homosexuality
from the ordinary form? The time of outbreak of a homosexual trait
does not create a new type. Even the term 'pseudo-homosexuality' is
of doubtful clinical value. Moreover, its introduction weakens the
author's views concerning the psychogenesis of these sexual traits be-
cause it implies a serious contradiction. Nothing can be gained by
making such hair-splitting clinical distinctions.
8. A. J. STORFER. Zur Sonderstellung des Vatersmordes. Eine rechts-
geschichtliche und v6lkerpsychologische Studie. Schriften zur
angewandten Seelenkunde, No. 12, 1911, 34 pages.
Storfer's study of patricide is an application to social psychology of
some of the fundamental psychoanalytical principles. It starts with a
brief historical account of the development of the notion of crime as a
social concept. The author's standpoint is that hunger and love have
been the two dynamic agencies which have shaped all associations be-
tween men from the earliest hunting groups on, including all family
ties. The endeavor to satisfy the primal instincts as thoroughly as pos-
sible required a certain economy of action; and this introduced the prin-
ciple of personal sacrifice for the greater good of all. The passing of
the stage which may be described as having been characterized by the
homo homini lupus rule of action over into a condition in which man
learned to act as a CWoo, rOAXtZrKy brought about a certain limitation
of personal freedom. The majesty of 'self' was counterbalanced by
that of the almightier 'we.' As the various principles of utility shaped
themselves the social requirements predominated, and acted as a safe-
guard against the more circumscribed selfish motives of the individuals
as such. Any deed which was deemed by the majority of the group,
consciously or otherwise, as detrimental became unsocial and was
branded with some distinctive term denoting disapproval, irrespec-
tive of individual regard or interests. We have not as yet realized in
practice an ideal concept of crime based on the broadest social signifi-
cance of the term. This remains to be accomplished by an order of
society to which true eugenic ideals will be more fundamental as
guiding principles than they are in our present social organization.
The old notion that primitive people obeyed commandments and
avoided crime because this was in accord with divinely prescribed law
has been entirely exploded. Modern science has replaced it with the
conviction that every juridico-social or religious prosciption was, at
bottom, only the projection of some human wish, and embodied the
expression of the dominant interests of society at a certain stage in its
evolution, such as the family, the group or clan, the caste, the city, the
nation or state. Thus legal and religious beginnings have a common
history.
Mythology represents the fossilized remains of a social and ethicza
order whose characteristic traits are older than any period of which
we possess distinct historical records. Through the study of myths and
primitive religion we learn something about the ways in which our
earliest ancestors thought and acted. It was therefore a happy thought
to call mythology the palaeontology of ethics.' The historical value of
legends and myths may be small if one considers only the incidents
recorded therein as such, but for the reconstruction of old beliefs and
ethico-social ideals they furnish an unlimited wealth of material, as has
been pointed out, among others, by Bernhoft.2 This is especially true
of mythological data.
1 MAKAREWICZ, Einfiihrung in die Philosophie des Strafrechts.
2Ehe und Erbrecht d. griech. Heroenzeit., Zeitschr. f. vgl. Recchts-
w7liss., XI, 322.
320 VAN TESLAAR
A definite conception about religious beginnings must precede any
attempt at interpreting the inception and evolution of ethico-legal no-
tions and ideals. If one admits, with Bastian for instance, that the
psychological source of religion is fear,-the fear of the many demoni-
acal powers with which primitive man must have thought himself sur-
rounded,-then one may accept without question the hypothesis that
flows from it that " das Mordverbot sei eine naheliegende Riickwirkung
der ddmonischen Beviilkerung der Natur und der ddmonisch bereits
empfundenen Zustdnde des Seelischen." 3 But the author of the present
study points out that, among primitive people, fear of demoniacal pow-
ers and fear of murder are by no means parallel developments. On the
contrary, the killing of an enemy is a virtue, which like many another,
springs from necessity. What is more, among some primitive people
whose struggle for survival was particularly severe on account of the
meager means of subsistence available, economic necessity developed
the custom of killing off the old and feeble. In the same way we must
look to economic and other social-utilitarian causes for an explanation
of the earliest religious and juridical customs and beliefs.
Freud, in recent years, has emphasized again the analogies between
individual psychic activity and the mechanism of social psychology and
has contributed to the subject a wealth of suggestions, most of which
remain as yet to be worked out. In one of his minor contributions
entitled "ZZwangshandlung und Religionsiibung."' Freud states: " Ein
fortschreitender Verzicht auf konstiltutionelle Triebe, deren Betditigung
dem Ich primdre Lust gewdihren konnte, scheint eine der Grundlagen
der menschlichen Kulturentwickelung zu sein." This is in accord with
the well-recognized fact that even the earliest forms of religious cus-
toms imply a certain sacrifice of individuality. It shows, in general
traits, the psychic factors at work in the process of crystalization of
religious beliefs. Consider, for instance, the custom of setting aside
a portion of land for the use of divinities and the rich gifts and sacri-
fices to invisible gods while the community is carrying on a precarious
existence. These illustrate the inhibition of selfish instincts and show
how broader principles of sacrifice to 'higher duties' are introduced.
The heroes and divinities of mythology are surrogates of the people's
suppressed wishes and phantasies. Religious traditions illustrate the
hidden mechanism of the social mind. This explains why the life his-
tories of heroes and of divinities are rich in unethical incidents and
plots of a repulsive nature. Wundt states that 'objectification of the
people's own consciousness' is the source of all myth-formation, and
that in this process man shifted all his qualifications, even the worst,
greatly magnified, upon divinities created for this purpose. The ana-
lytical psychology of Freud substitutes for Wundt's objectification of
consciousness the 'creative power of subconsciousness,' and maintains
with particular stress that no magnification of any traits occurs in the
process. The traits ascribed by man to his god, from the best to the
very worst, are those which live in his breast, either as remnants of his
long past or as aspirations of his own future. In the psychic mechanism
of the individual Freud has found that the unwelcome, forbidden wish
is transposed and sometimes projected outward and upward. A study
of myths and religions shows that the same mechanism is found in
I BASTIAN, Zur Mythologie und Psychologie der Nigritier, p. 16o. In
this connection, 'didmonische Zustdnde' refers particularly to dream
and disease.
'Sammlung kleiner Schriften, F. Deuticke, Wien, 19o9.
5 Ethik, 3rd ed., I., 52.
folk-psychology. Not only do religious commandments and proscrip-
tions represent what is socially undesirable at a given stage in the evo-
bution of society, but the life histories of all religious heroes, from the
earliest mythological divinities to Christ, show a transfer 'upward' of
what is incompatible with man's sophisticated notions of morality and
is therefore forbidden. Consider, for an example, the following in-
stance: People living in an order of society in which the family organi-
zation is basal and the powers of the pater familias supreme, look upon
patricide, naturally enough, as the blackest crime of which one could be
guilty, yet they are the very people who represent their divinities as
guilty of it.
It appears that among primitive peoples individual life was not valued
highly. In a state of society in which war was of perpetual occurrence
murder could have not been a very serious offence. Where enemies
abound and the struggle for survival is at its keenest, killing in order
not to be killed is a necessity. Even before the Marxian materialistic
conception of history was formulated, the view was expressed by no
less keen an observer than Voltaire, that war was at bottom a question
of theft.6 The occasional snuffing out of a human life could not have
been looked upon as a very portentous affair in those unstable days of
continuous warfare. The bellicose disposition of primitive people is
further illustrated by their well-known mistrust and suspicion of all
strangers. There is a deep psychic reason for this. Subconsciously,
if not otherwise, every stranger is regarded as an eventual competitor
in the struggle for existence or as a possible sexual rival. These are
the two greatest motivations of man's earliest struggle on earth; and
they have remained largely so to this day. It is interesting to note that
a similar subconscious motivation has been ascribed to the child's in-
stinctive dislike for or fear of strangers, and to the similar peculiari-
ties of mental defectives. Their otherwise unaccountable mistrust
varies, as is well known, from slight antipathy to marked hatred and a
desire to kill the stranger. The friendly reception of strangers is a
late development in the evolution of men's relations with each other,
a distinct mark of sophistication. It was a natural sequence of the
development of commercial exchange and similar pursuits. With the
custom of exchange the first substantial step was taken towards the
internationalization of law; it marked the beginning of the transfer of
hostis into the quality of hospes. Indeed, it is not by accident that the
words host and hostile are traceable to the same root. This change had
a tremendous influence upon the course of social progress. For one
thing, it introduced, besides the notions of ' I' and 'we,' a third, 'host,'
belonging to the same category. Henceforth a host could also enjoy
certain rights and privileges in the midst of the social group; not all
strangers were alike enemies.
The principle of unlawful murder within the community must have
been introduced by way of contrast between the rights and privileges
of the 'classes' or categories mentioned. If the host appeared in the
quality of hostis, or was adjudged thus, during turbulent days of war-
fare and reciprocal suspicion between allied groups, it was no doubt
proper to kill him. But the sanction of the group probably did not
extend to the murder of other members within it, except, of course, in
those instances where lack of food supply or similar conditions made
the removal of such unproductive members as the old and the feeble
a desirable measure of relief and the custom of killing them off grew
' This expression was paraphrased by Proudhon in his famous defi-
nition of private property: 'Ld propriete c'est le vol.'
322 VAN TESLAAR
as an ethico-religious ceremonial. But there was one form of murder
which must have been guarded against by all the means at command in
those days, namely the killing of the chieftain, the man in whom cen-
tered all the social authority, all the power and prestige of the group.
An attack upon him meant an attack upon the whole community; it
savored of a social calamity. Such a crime must therefore have stood
out as the blackest imaginable. The deed was nothing short of treason.
To this day, treason is still the highest crime of which a man may ren-
der himself guilty, and it calls forth summary punishment. Garofalo
calls it the natural crime. The moral difference, where the physical
deed was similar, must have been perceived in some way even by those
primitive men to rest in the relations between the agent of the crime
and his victim. In that stage of society in which the family was the
social unit, forming a sort of state on a small scale, and the larger com-
munity was but an aggregate of such states, with the father in each as
the head, rebellion against him must have been looked upon as the
equivalent of political treason and patricide must have been of all for-
bidden deeds, the vilest crime. Even after the family ceased to be
autochthonous and was succeeded by other forms of social order, the
old odium attaching to patricide must have survived in folkthought,
especially in communities, like Rome, in which the family continued to
be, in many respects, the basis of the whole social organization.
With the pater familias representing the powers of the state and
patricide political murder par excellence, the killing of the father, was
probably the first publicly forbidden form of murder. History, arche-
ology, ethnology, jurisprudence and the psychology of the subconscious
mind of childhood bring evidence from widely separated fields substan-
tiating this point. The particular forms of prohibition and the formu-
lation of preventive and punitive measures can be understood only in
connection with the economic and other social conditions of the respec-
tive people, and on the basis of analytical psychology.
Two very significant facts may be mentioned as illustrating these
principles and their wide range of application, when considered in con-
junction with each other. Among the earliest politico-religious regula-
tions of the Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and
Chinese alike (and almost every other nation that might be mentioned)
we find specific and unusually severe punishments provided for offences
against the head of the family, that is, the father. On the other hand,
it will be found that the gods of all these nations have been represented
as guilty of all kinds of offences against the father, including murder.
Moreover, there are legends among many Indo-European peoples of
occurrences in which the son drove the father from the seat of power
in the family and usurped his place. The most precious possession that
went with the coveted place was woman. Nor is it easy to distinguish
between the chief wife, the concubines and the slaves of those times.
At any rate, among the Indo-Europeans it was not uncommon for the
son to inherit his father's concubines and women slaves, even if traces
of his marrying also his father's chief wife, that is, his mother, are
not so frequent. Certain it is that among the Lithuanians and Prus-
sians, for instance, the son was not forbidden to marry his step mother
and this custom of intermarriage between children and foster parents
was also known among the Anglo-Saxons.
Thus yearning after power and particularly for the sexual privileges
which it brought were the psychic motives which led to patricide in the
early cultural states of society. Kohler makes a comparison which
7Holzendorfer-Kohler, Enzyklopaedie, I., 6.
throws a flood of light on the biologico-psychic origin, import, and con-
sequences of changes in social control when he states that 'Jedes Recht
ist ein Oedipus der seinen Vater t6tet und mit seiner Mutter ein neues
Geschlecht erzeugt." Kohler's reference to the Oedipus myth was in-
cidental; but the analytical psychology of Freud insists that it is more
than a figure of speech. That it embodies a literal truth. The Oedipus
myth represents the incest phantasy of a nation, and is a paradigm
which furnishes an important starting-point for the psychoanalysis of
the relations between children and parents. " Many men there are,"
runs a remarkable statement in the Oedipus tragedy by Sophocles,
"who have seen themselves in dreams mated to their mothers." Thus
incest phantasy is openly recognized by the Greek mind. The plot of
Shakespeare's Hamlet is also believed to rest upon an incest phantasy.8
The rivalry between father and son, the young hero and the ugly
king, furnishes the plot for many myths and folk-stories among the
most varied nations. This is only natural to the naive mind of primi-
tive people since the patriarchal family-state was not the earliest form
of family organization. It was preceded, as is well known, by hetaerism
(promiscuous, or clan marriage) and by the matriarchal form of or-
ganization. No wonder that incest phantasies are universally distri-
buted and regularly projected or transferred by the people to their
deities and mythical heroes. Every one is familiar, for instance, with
Caesar's statement about the Britons, in his De Bello Gallico: " Uxores
habent . . . inter se comunes . . parentes cum liberis." This
promiscuity was stopped only by the advent of the patriarchal form
which also led ultimately to monogamy. But such a radical change
in the sex relations between the members of the family or clan, was not
possible without strong psychic repressions. Custom and law, religion
and superstition enforced the new order and added force to the psychic
repressions. One of the formal results of this was that members of the
families became sophisticated; filial piety, especially toward the father,
came to be looked upon as a particular virtue. Still, early infancy is
free from it, for, as Lafontaine has said, "cet age est sans pitii."
According to certain recent Freudian deductions, this should be found
to be true also of the early age of nations.
In the patriarchal state the manifest glory and power of the pater
familias consisted chiefly in his sexual privileges; these, at an earlier
period, had been shared by all the adult males of the family more
nearly alike, hence the sense of rivalry between father and son, hence
the incest phantasies, the symbolism of childhood, the dreams represent-
ing patricide. Hehn's report in his "De moribus Rhutenorum,'" of a
young man who told with considerable pride that his bride had been
rendered pregnant by the Batjuschka, the master, his father, is very
significant because it throws additional light on some possible privileges
of the pater familias during the patriarchal state and indicates his abso-
lute powers. It is quite possible that the land master's much discussed
jus primae noctis, during the later, feudal-economic state, may have
been a remnant of the original privileges of the pater familias. Indeed
the land-lord exercised the same absolute rights over his community as
the pater familias of old over his circle; in a certain sense his was a
makro-family over the members of which he held the same despotic
powers.
8 "Hamlet ist ein Eckpfeiler in der Entwickelungsgeschichte von
Recht und Sittlichkeit," Kohler, Shakespeare vor dem Forum der Juris-
prudenz, p. i89. See also Ernest Jones, Das Problem des Hamlet
und der Oedipus Komplex.
324 VAN TESLAAR
It is interesting, in this connection, to note that pater and n7arzip
mean originally the master, he who nourishes, and not father in the
modern sense. This may be seen further from the relation of this
term to potestas and 6eo.drri7; In other words, during the patriarchal
family organization the biological r61le of fatherhood was rather ob-
scured by the juridico-social function. The master and head of the
family was surrounded by special protective regulations, under the
sanction of custom and religion. These were measures of state, di-
rected against treason within the social body. It is extremely charac-
teristic that d'yo; treason is the very term with which Kreon brands
the action of Oedipus who kills his father and marries his mother.
If we turn to modern political crimes, plots, treasons and regicides,
we.find a strong and hitherto unexplained connection between the sex-
ually motivated family conflicts and strife on the political field. Let
this example suffice: One of the greatest epidemics of political mur-
ders in modern times was that which accompanied the rise of Russian
nihilism. All the authentic documents that bear directly upon this
movement indicate that it was as much a rebellion against old family
conditions as against the old form of government. Turghenieff wrote
a novel which was the first to give expression to the nihilistic tendencies
of his day. In fact this is the work in which the word nihilist occurs
for the first time. The Russian revolutionary youth borrowed from
this novel the term which they applied to themselves and their move-
ment. The title of this novel is 'Fathers and Sons.'
Roman Patricide. The oldest Roman document referring to murder
is the statement by Numa Pompilius: 'Si quis hominem liberum dolo
sciens morti duit, paricidas esto.' Why a murderer should be thus
branded as a patricide is a problem which has led to endless controversy.
A review of the etymological discussion of this expression, supple-
mented by an analysis of what historical documents are available, leads
Storfer to the following conclusion: In the earliest times patricide
probably meant the killing of any member participating in the sexual
life of the social group; in patriarchal times this term was restricted to
the murder of the head of the family; since Numa Pompilius it was
again broadened to include the murder of any free citizen; and after
the Roman republic it was once more restricted to mean the assassina-
tion of blood relations.
Animal symbolism in the Roman ritual of punishment for Patricide.
For patricide, occasionally for the killing of other blood relations, the
traditional punishment towards the end of the republic at Rome and
during the imperial age was the poena cullei: the murderer was sewn
up in a sack together with a cock, a dog, an ape or a snake and thrown
into the ocean. This curious custom points to an early sexual impli-
cation of the offense. It is no doubt a survival of the early period when
the sex factor was preiminent in the motivation of the deed.
It is well known that punishment and sacrifice, legal ceremony and
religious symbolism, stand in very close relationship, having had a
common origin. The Latin term supplicium, for instance, means sacri-
fice and also capital punishment. Every punishment is a ceremony mo-
tivated formally by the desire to appease the wrath of some deity
who may have been offended through the deed but the ceremony also
roots psychically in a deeper motive, namely, the satisfaction of the
punishers themselves who in this manner abreact their own pent-up
feelings. The ceremony, whether sacrificial or punitive, whether re-
ligious or legal, has the same object from the standpoint of social psy-
chology, namely, the reEstablishment of psychic equilibrium. The cere-
mony is as complex and as impressive as the repressed phantasy com-
plex to be abreacted is strong and deeply rooted.
He who kills his father is thrown into the ocean so that he may never
reunite himself with mother earth, after being first sewn up with a dog,
cock, ape or snake-symbol of the sexual import of his deed. Every
one of these living creatures stands for sexuality in folklore, myth and
religion. Storfer quotes numerous references from these three sources
to illustrate this point. He concludes as follows: "Dadurch, dass Hund,
Hahn, Affe, und Schlange mit dent Vatermirder ins Meer geworfen
wurden, dadurch, dass ihre Vereinigung mit der Muttererde verhindert
wurde, sollte also die Empiirung gegen die patriarchalische Gewalt, die
Auflehnung gegen die sexuelle Omnnipotenz des Vaters, der psycholo-
gische Riickfall in den Hetiirismus gerichtet und gesiihnt werden"
(P. 33).
9. F. WITTELS. Tragische Motive: Das Unbewusste von Held und
Heldin. Berlin, E. Fleischel & Cie, I9II, 165 pages.
In such works as Abraham's Traum und Mythus, Rank's Geburt der
Holden, Ricklin's Wunscherfiillung in Miirchen, and Storfer's Sonder-
stellung des Vatermordes, the results of Freudian analysis of the
mechanism of individual psychic activity are applied to the study of
phenomena of a psycho-social order. This is done on the reasonable
assumption that the working order of the 'social mind' is at bottom
governed by the same rules as the mind of the individual.
The present work by Wittels, author of the excellently written volume
entitled 'Die sexuelle Not,' represents a similar attempt to apply the
analytical data of Freudian psychology to the field of letters and spe-
cifically to the motivation of dramatic plots. Wittels starts from the
premise that the transfer of affects is a most common psychic occur-
rence. He also accepts the whole Freudian notion of the subconscious.
With these two hypotheses as a basis, he formulates a rule which is to
explain the psychic motivation of plots, practically as follows: The
cause of all tragedy is the break into consciousness of the illogical and
unethical subconscious self.
This broad generalization is illustrated and reiterated by references
to many of the world's best known literary and dramatic plots. Brutus
kills Caesar not on account of his great love for freedom, but because
of his subconsciously acting hatred towards his father, his sexual rival,
his mother's 'betrayer.' Rhodope condones the killing of Kandaules
and then dies. The apparent reasons for this tragedy are humiliation
and revenge. But psychoanalysis alone reveals the true reason: Kan-
daules became the surrogate, the bearer of Rhodope's subconsciously
motivated phantasies and wishes. His death symbolizes her realization
that she must part with them; hence his murder and the true motive
for the tragedy. In like manner is to be explained Kandaules' act of
exposing Gyges before his wife. Kandaules does this not out of
sheer recklessness; he is led to the act by motives which he himself
does not realize. The truth is that his wife had lost all charm for him,
and Kandaules was prompted subconsciously to create an embarrassing
situation for her,-a situation that may prompt her to commit a serious
breach of marital ethics and furnish him with grounds for separation.
Medea kills her children; again the formal reasons appear to be jeal-
ousy and revenge. But the real, subconsciously active, psychic motive
is Medea's wish to be once more as young, pretty and attractive as
when Jason first knew her. Why are such men as Macbeth attracted
to women like Lady Macbeth? Because men who, for any reason, have
326 VAN TESLAAR
subconscious inclination to murderous deeds are always attracted by
women capable of fanning their hidden tendencies which clamor for
expression into an uncontrollable impulse so as to become abreacted.
Such women as Judith, Charlotte Corday or Joan of Arc are impelled
to deeds of heroism by suppressed erotic impulses. The political and
patriotic reasons are merely formal. The true motives are hidden
deeply in the subconscious. In the same way, religious devotion and
saintliness are but a vein for latent sex impulses, a mask under which
these are given free rein.
These and similar explanations are some of the consequences of the
author's generalization. It will be seen that his formula is broad
enough to be applicable to every known plot in the world's literature;
but it may be that its very breadth divests it of concreteness. More-
over, the rule is applicable only in the presence of morbidly intensified
psychogenic complexes. That is, we must first have the annoyed hus-
band, the hysterical, love-longing wife, the Oedipus-complex, before
the rule works. It would appear that after all, this formula is but a
restatement, in hypothetical terms, of certain facts which had hitherto
been stated in language more appropriate to their formal aspect.
Whether anything is gained thereby and particularly whether any real
light is thrown upon the psychogenesis of dramatic plots by this theory
the reader must decide himself from the outline which has just been
given. The reviewer's attitude remains 'rein referierend' for the
present.
The reader may raise the question: Are we to infer that it is the
dramatist's intention to depict that which Wittels sees in his creations?
Or is Wittels' merely a view-point from which we may encompass the
whole field of drama, irrespective of the dramatist's intention? In the
last analysis it really does not matter one way or another. The dram-
atist is a man of deep vision, not a scientist; he may have been led
subconsciously to depict struggles and situations whose real import es-
capes even his understanding. This is not uncommon. But whether
this be so or not, the value of the dramatist's works as documents for
psychoanalytical study remains the same.
A special chapter entitled " Hellas und Hysterie" discusses the prob-
lem as to whether the Greeks of the classical period were subject to
hysteria. This chapter contains very excellent suggestions. The ques-
tion itself is answered in the negative. The author states that the
Greek theater alone provided a thorough channel for discharging pent-
up subconscious motivations and was enough to keep the Greek mind in
a healthy state and specially free from hysteria. For the Greek the
stage was 'ein Hort der psychischen Gesundheit,' a most precious
safety valve such as the modern citizen scarcely possesses. It is a mis-
take to look upon the Greek drama as at all symptomatic of the Greek
mind. On the contrary, it shows what the citizens of Greece escaped
just because they possessed this means of abreacting their phantasies.
We are inclined to look upon Greek tragedy as peculiarly strange. The
unfamiliarity of its spirit is due to the fact that we are too much
addicted to hysteria, '"wir leben mit ihr in Symbiose.' Having suc-
ceeded in suppressing all unwelcome instincts far beyond easy recall,
the heroes of Greek tragedy, bearers of our own subconscious motiva-
tions though they be, appear nevertheless to be strange creatures with
whom we have nothing in common. As a matter of fact, if we were
as frank a people as the Greeks were we should recognize a great part
of ourselves in the heroes of their drama. A true understanding of
drama is furnished only by the sympathetic rapport between the sup-
pressed longings and phantasies of our subconscious stream and the
heroes of the stage. Every great tragedy represents before our eyes
the demons of our inner self; and it is for us to be honest enough to
recognize our identity with them. Therein lies the true appreciation of
drama, the great virtue of the Aristotelian principle of aesthetic cathar-
sis. But having become more and more interested in the formal and
conscious side of our existence and having therefore wandered away
from our inner self we moderns lack the clear understanding of the
human soul which distinguished the naive Greek mind; hence our in-
ability really to appreciate Greek tragedy. Our civilization has carried
us far away from that state in which man realized himself as a child
of nature. We have become too sophisticated. This is the reason why
the Greek stage seems no longer to hold up the mirror of nature to us.

Psychoanalysis A Review of Current Literature

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Psychoanalysis: A Review of Current Literature

Authors(s): J. S. Van Teslaar

PSYCHOANALYSIS: A REVIEW OF CURRENT

By Dr. J. S. VAN TESLAAR

I. S. FREUD. Die Handlung der Traumdeutung in der Psychoanalyse.

Zentralblatt f. Psychoanalyse, II., 19II, 109-II3.

In this paper Freud discusses some points in the technique of dream

analysis bearing on the question: what practical uses may be made of

the art of dream analysis in the psychoanalytical treatment of neuroses?

It is ordinarily understood that, for clinical purposes, the analysis of

dreams must be thorough. This requires a great deal of time. Before

sulting physician is overwhelmed by the amount of material on hand

requiring analysis, so that he can hardly do justice to it during the hour

patient's understanding of the incidents recorded therein is faltering

and slow. The physician's effort at penetrating the source of trouble

is thwarted on all sides by the patient's subconscious unwillingness to

co6perate. Meanwhile dream material keeps accumulating. Under

such circumstances one feels inclined to renounce all attempts at thor-

oughness of analysis or else is compelled to devote attention only to a

portion of the material.

Freud suggests that in all such cases it is preferable to limit one's

set aside for consultation rather than abandon thoroughness. Where

a new promising dream is reported it is always well to take it up even

if the analysis of an older dream is interrupted and must be postponed

indefinitely. In other words, where material accumulates so fast that

a choice becomes necessary it is of advantage to decide in favor of the

latest dream and to set aside, if necessary, observations already made

in connection with an older dream.

proper continuation of the task of analysis. Such a notion might easily

focus the patient's subconscious opposition upon the field of dream

there would be no dreams to report. On the contrary, the patient

should be made to feel that it is immaterial for the progress of the

work whether any new dreams are reported or not.

It is well to bear in mind that in severe neuroses most dreams are

unknown to subject and physician alike, so that a complete analysis of

such a dream is out of the question. It is only as physician and patient

incidents revealed in the dream. Where the whole content of a com-

plicated neurosis of long standing is translated into the symbolical

310 VAN TESLAAR

language of a certain dream, an exhaustive interpretation of the dream

is not possible at one or two sittings or in the interval between it and

another, perhaps equally interesting dream. To arrive at a complete

understanding of such a dream would be to unravel the whole of the

series of pathogenic complexes which the experience of a lifetime has

gradually precipitated into the subconscious; and this is not possible

without a knowledge of the actual incidents of intimate order out of

must remove a great deal of subconscious opposition from his path

before this can be accomplished. The meaning of a dream is often

uncovered rather gradually, perhaps only in the course of months, by

along other lines.

When a partly analyzed dream is abandoned for a later report, little

in a different and perhaps more penetrable form. A new dream may

was studied in a preceding dream. Indeed, sometimes the best way to

unravel the meaning of a particularly baffling dream is to abandon it

the findings from time to time.

Freud insists that for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes it is never

necessary to instruct patients to write down their dreams during the

night or even at the earliest opportunity in the morning. A dream

which may be rescued from oblivion by this means is not likely to

prove of any particular value in the task of clearing up the patient's

condition. No special means for taking care of dreams are required.

The dreams the patient remembers and relates spontaneously furnish

the material needed for all practical purposes.